The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Online pot information site taken down
Terp Street webpage included informal names of marijuana strains offered at medical marijuana dispensaries in CT
Terp Street, a website that featured a glossary of cannabis strains and medical dispensaries in Connecticut, has gone dark amid an investigation by the state, causing a backlash from users.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the state’s Department of Consumer Protection said the website’s owners were asked to remove “street names” for cannabis products from the site.
“DCP does not allow the use of ‘street names’ for medical products because we have no way to verify the strain you may buy on the street is the same as the medicinal product you purchase from a licensed and regulated dispensary,” the statement from the agency reads. “Additionally many of the names are inappropriate for medical products, and, in several cases, would appeal to children or inappropriately encourage recreational use of medical products.”
The site included a list of Connecticut medical marijuana dispensaries alongside lists of the strains they offer. Those included the equivalent street name for each of the products, according to a page from the site saved on The Wayback Machine, a webpage archive.
Some of the street names listed on the site included “Girl Scout Cookies x Ghost,” “Do-Si-Dos” and “Strawberry Cough,” according to the archived page.
Rather than removing the street names, the owners instead chose to take the whole site down, according to DCP.
That prompted a backlash on social media, with users blaming the closure on DCP and managers at two Connecticut medical marijuana dispensaries, who they believe complained to the agency about the site.
One post on a subreddit for Connecticut cannabis enthusiasts provided a form letter and contact information for DCP and other dispensaries in the state. The form letter advocated for the use of street names at dispensaries or for the state to provide an alternative to Terp Street.
In a July 18 Instagram post, the owners of Terp Street said DCP “has concluded
Terp Street must be taken down.”
Kaitlyn Krasselt, a spokeswoman for DCP, said the agency had jurisdiction over the site because it was run by three people licensed by the state.
“We did an investigation and had a compliance hearing, and they agreed in that
process to take the street names off of their website,” she said. “They then chose to take the website down entirely.”
Because the three employees – two pharmacists and a tech – were licensed by the state, the agency was obligated to investigate and “remind them... as license holders they are subject to the rules that came with those licenses.”
The names of the sites owners have not been released by DCP because the agreement with them is still pending. Hearst Connecticut Media has submitted a request for documents related to the inquiry under the state’s Freedom of Information Act.
Krasselt said the department encourages patients to consult with their pharmacists and doctors about the medications they are prescribed from dispensaries. “If they feel like they’re not getting adequate information from those two sources... they should certainly let us know that.”
Last month, Connecticut became the 19th state to legalize recreational cannabis use. The state legalized medical use of the substance in 2012.